[ Update, Nov. 18, 2024. I just finished testing all three video editors. Based on what I’ve learned, I’ve changed my opinion on RAM and GPUs. I also added new comments and modified my hardware recommendations. ]
After finishing my performance testing of both NLE software and a range of Macs, it is clear that the M4-series Macs continue Apple’s tradition of delivering outstanding computer performance in a variety of form factors at (mostly) affordable prices.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
SO, SHOULD YOU BUY ONE?
Maybe.
Another big benefit to M4-computers – in addition to faster speed – is support for more and larger monitors and, on M4 Pro and M4 Max systems, support for Thunderbolt 5. However, Thunderbolt 5 also requires buying Thunderbolt 5 storage or docks.
For more reviews like this, please subscribe to my free, weekly newsletter: Edit SMARTER. Published since 2004, each issue is filled with news, reviews and tutorials you can use every week.
Thanks!
INTERNAL STORAGE PERFORMANCE
I looked at the speeds of various internal drives. All M-series computers have internal drives roughly equivalent to the fastest Thunderbolt 5 external unit, which is about 6,000 MB/second.
However, tests using both Final Cut and Premiere also show that they are not exporting data anywhere close to Thunderbolt 5 speeds. FCP exports max out around 1.2 GB/second. Resolve and Premiere are both slower.
In general, buy enough internal storage to hold the operating system, all applications and work files. I have a 2 TB system on my M2 Max Mac Studio and I’m using 500 GB of it. Use external storage for all projects and media.
The big benefit to Thunderbolt 5 – currently – is that file transfers using Finder or other third-party file transfer software will come close to filling a Thunderbolt 5 pipe – assuming the storage hardware is fast enough to support that speed. This makes handling giant files much easier and faster. But it won’t make much difference – yet – to your NLE.
PLANNING YOUR CONFIGURATION
As you plan your new system, here are some considerations to keep in mind:
Laptop or Desktop
If you need portability, buy a laptop. If not, desktops will cost less and, generally, have better heat management. All M4 Macs include a monitor and keyboard, except for the Mac mini.
M4 vs. M4 Pro vs. M4 Max
If you are a hobbyist, with a limited budget, or don’t edit that much, or principally need it for office work – web, word processing, spreadsheets, databases and the like – the M4 is TOTALLY perfect.
If you need/want Thunderbolt 5 – and the additional external monitors it supports – you must get a system with an M4 Pro or M4 Max chip.
If you are doing massive multicam edits, working with gigantic frame sizes, have zero time for anything to render, work with 3D space, or create animated videos; all of these will benefit from an M4 Pro or M4 Max chip. (The M4 Max is nice to have for media editing, but it has power you’ll never use.)
If you have the budget, but don’t know – yet – what you want to do with it, get a system with the M4 Pro chip.
CPU Cores
More cores provides more performance. But even base-level systems have more than enough performance for media editing. Keep in mind that, in general, M4 systems are roughly as fast as M2 systems and 10X, or more, faster than any Intel system.
UPDATE: Regarding efficiency vs. performance cores, no software maxes out all the cores all the time. So, there’s no reason to spend extra for more CPU cores. I generally recommend something in the middle. In fact, both FCP and Resolve use efficiency cores more than performance cores for playback and rendering.
GPU Cores
Increasingly, our NLEs are using GPUs more effectively. More GPUs will help both simple and complex projects with rendering and export.
UPDATE: I used to say the number of GPUs doesn’t really matter. In this round of testing, they matter a lot. Once you have at least 24 GB of RAM, if you need to choose between more RAM or more GPU cores, buy more GPU cores. More RAM is nice, but more GPUs boost performance.
RAM
In the past, 16 GB of RAM was the minimum for video editing. The 8 GB that Apple shipped was OK for office applications, but far too limiting for editing. Today, with the new unified memory of M-series chips, I recommend 16 GB for straightforward editing regardless of frame size. I recommend more RAM for multicam editing or large frame sizes. The exception is Premiere which is much more RAM hungry than FCP or Resolve.
Again, based on my testing, you won’t see a significant improvement in media editing or rendering performance with more than 24 GB of RAM. Remember, all NLE software was designed to run in 8 GB of RAM. What more RAM gets you is larger cache files.
UPDATE: Based on my testing of Final Cut, Premiere and Resolve, systems with more RAM, but fewer GPU cores are not as fast as systems with relatively less RAM and more GPU cores. At a minimum, get 24 GB of RAM. Then, if you have to choose, buy more GPU cores before you buy more RAM.
Storage
Media files are gigantic. Regardless of how much internal storage you buy, you’ll need more. Rather than spend excessive dollars boosting internal storage, buy enough internal storage to give your system room to work, then supplement it with external storage.
UPDATE: The minimum internal storage I recommend for media is 1 TB. Yes, you can get away with 512 GB but your space will be crunched sooner than you expect. At the high-end, I recommend 2 TB. For media, buying more internal storage than 2 TB is wasting money.
In my office, I have a Mac Studio with 2 TB internal, an external 8 TB SSD RAID, an external 48 TB HDD RAID, and a 160 TB HDD network server. And that’s just for me – you can never have enough storage.
Ethernet
Unless you have a network optimized for 10G, which requires a 10G switch, 10G server connections, and 10G cables, a 1G Ethernet port on the computer will be fine.
Because I like playing with blinking lights, my office network is optimized for 10G.
CONFIGURATION RECOMMENDATIONS
If you have the money, buy whatever you want. There’s no harm in buying more than these specs; load your system however you want. However, if you are on a budget, here’s what I recommend as the best way to allocate your limited dollars.
NOTE: I ended up buying one of these systems. Here’s what I bought and why.
To Save Money – but still be productive editing video.
MacBook Pro – UPDATED
Size: 14″
CPU: M4 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU
RAM: 24 GB
Storage: 1 TB
Price: $1,999.00 (US)
iMac
CPU: M4 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 1 TB
Gigabit Ethernet
Price: $1,699.00 (US)
Mac mini
CPU: M4 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 1 TB
Price: $999.00 (US)
Better Performance
MacBook Pro – UPDATED
CPU: M4 Pro, 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU
Size: 16″ (easier to see the interface)
RAM: 24 GB
Storage: 1 TB
Price: $2,699.00 (US)
iMac
CPU: M4 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU
RAM: 24 GB
Storage: 1 TB
Price: $2,099.00 (US)
Mac mini – UPDATED
CPU: M4 Pro 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU
RAM: 24 GB
Storage: 1 TB
Gigabit Ethernet
Price: $1,599.00 (US)
High-End
MacBook Pro – UPDATED
CPU: M4 Max, 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU
Size: 16″ (easier to see the interface)
RAM: 36 GB
Storage: 2 TB
Price: $3,899.00 (US)
iMac
CPU: M4 10-core
RAM: 32 GB
Storage: 2 TB
Price: $2,699.00 (US)
Mac mini – UPDATED
CPU: M4 Pro 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU
RAM: 24 GB
Storage: 2 TB
1G Ethernet (10G if your network supports it)
Thunderbolt 5
Price: $2,199.00 (US)
SUMMARY
It’s important to remember that you don’t need to buy the fully-loaded version of any system to get serious work done. Apple charges a fortune for RAM and storage. You can buy more RAM, but I wouldn’t buy more than 48 GB; your system won’t use it for video editing. More GPUs are better than boodles of RAM.
Also, it is FAR cheaper to buy external storage, while providing room on your internal drive for macOS, applications and work files. If you need real speed, buy external Thunderbolt 5 SSDs when they become available.
2,000 Video Training Titles
Edit smarter with Larry Jordan. Available in our store.
Access over 2,000 on-demand video editing courses. Become a member of our Video Training Library today!
Subscribe to Larry's FREE weekly newsletter and
save 10%
on your first purchase.
99 Responses to Configure an M4 Mac for Video Editing
← Older Comments Newer Comments →-
Larry says:
December 16, 2024 at 11:47 am
-
Larry says:
December 16, 2024 at 11:48 am
-
ian says:
December 18, 2024 at 9:30 am
-
Larry says:
December 18, 2024 at 9:32 am
-
ian says:
December 19, 2024 at 7:20 pm
-
Larry says:
December 23, 2024 at 5:43 am
-
Rob OK says:
December 25, 2024 at 5:46 pm
-
Larry Jordan says:
December 25, 2024 at 6:00 pm
-
Shaun says:
January 1, 2025 at 7:46 pm
-
Larry says:
January 1, 2025 at 8:10 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Ian:
The 8 TB SSD RAID is an OWC Thunderblade. Here’s my review:
https://larryjordan.com/articles/review-owc-thunderblade-ssd-raid-really-fast-but-not-as-fast-as-you-imagine/
I’ve been using it for two years now and it’s been totally reliable. I use it for all active editing projects.
The 24 TB (I mis-wrote earlier) HDD RAID is an OWC ThunderBay. I’ve owned three or four of these and just purchased a new one with Thunderbolt 3 support. I’m writing a review of it this week. Here’s my latest review:
https://larryjordan.com/articles/product-review-owc-thunderbay-4-raid/
I purchased the first one ten years ago. The one I’m using now was purchased 5 years or so ago, it only has Thunderbolt 2. The one I purchased last week has Thunderbolt 3 support. I populate all of them with Seagate hard drives.
All these units connect via Thunderbolt to my Mac Studio. The SSD is used for active projects. The HDD RAID is used for backups and archiving.
Hope this helps.
Larry
JJ:
Rendering. Any M4 unit is fast enough for workflow/editing/moving stuff around. The only exception might be playing effects in real time with highly compressed codecs such as H.264 or HEVC.
For the effects you mention, the amount of RAM will have less impact than the number to GPUs. Noise reduction, especially, is GPU intensive.
Larry
Awesome 🙂 Thank you God bless you 🙂 One other question… my hard drive is sitting at approx. 75% full with a 1 TB internal SSD with no image data on the drive. Should I upgrade to a 2 TB internal SSD or would the 8 tb external ssd you mentioned resolve the need for the internal space for editing?
Ian:
This depends upon your budget. If you internal drive is 75% full WITHOUT media, then, yes, upgrading to 2 TB makes sense if you can afford it.
On the other hand, if you can’t, fast external storage will be perfectly fine – just another box attached to your computer.
Larry
Thanks Larry 🙂 Went ahead with the 8 TB SSD for RAID 0 and the 24TB HDD for RAID 5 backup you outlined. From there we’ll do a cloud backup. The 2023 M2 Pro Mac Mini with 1TB internal, 32 GB RAM, 12 core CPU and 19 core GPU seems to have decent perf still. And coupled with the external 8 TB SSD should justify a big cost savings while offering a lot more storage than not having the 8 TB SSD and trying to use the 2 TB internal drive on a new Mac mini M4 Pro with similar cores etc. Storage is so affordable compared to when I first stared out with computers. Really appreciate your help 🙂
Ian:
That M2 Pro Mac mini has amazing performance. One of the fastest computers out there. Enjoy your new gear!
Larry
When is a M4 Max called for or when does it shine? I read something about in certain Premeire render scenarios? Obviously you’d have to be really pushing the limits, but are you aware of certain use cases that really use the Max?
Rob:
It depends. There’s nothing in video editing that requires it. More GPUs improves render speeds more effectively.
An m4 pro roughly equals an M2 Max. Storage speed and number of gpus are more important.
If you have the money buy a max. But for video editing a Pro will be more than sufficient.
Cases like 3D modeling, creating ai LLMs, perhaps programming, or extremely large image analysis would benefit from a max.
Larry
Hi Larry,
Been relying on your tutorials and advice for over a decade now – thanks for all you do!
I’m looking to upgrade to a 16″ MBP (from my 16GB 14″ M2 PRO). I work full time as a video editor and produce a lot of fairly complex videos using both premiere and after effects. My current MBP is heavily taxed a lot of the time and I’m often running out of memory, as i’ll typically have multiple adobe apps running, as well as dozens of browser tabs.
My question is, given my demands, what would you recommend? I’ve been going back-and-forth between the M4 Pro 48GB RAM, M4 Max 14/32 36GB RAM and the M4 Max 16/40 (either 48GB or 64GB RAM). I’d like this mac to last for a good 5 years, so i’m prepared to pay for a higher end mac if needed, but obviously would prefer to avoid this if it could be overkill.
Any advice is greatly appreciated – thanks!
Shaun:
First, let’s not be foolish. Do you REALLY need all those tabs open? Or all those apps running at once? Most likely not. I don’t care how fast a computer you get, if you get lazy and just try to run everything all the time, you are gonna jam the system. RAM is a resource – use it wisely.
The Adobe apps are notorious for sucking up RAM. But, their default memory settings are also excessive. Photoshop is the worst of the lot, followed by After Effects. Premiere not too bad. So the first thing I’d do is adjust the Memory allocations in the Preferences for each app.
Start each app, and load a typical project. Open Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder) and see how much RAM it is using. Then, set the preference to be slightly larger than that. Repeat for all the apps and see if that helps.
As for new gear, video editing does not require a Max chip. After Effects benefits from more RAM, as does Photoshop. But, if you are doing something really intensive with either app, close something else. Again, treat RAM as a precious resource and you’ll be surprised at the speed boost.
As for gear, I don’t use After Effects, but Premiere heavily leans on the GPU. Both will use as much RAM as you give them – because Adobe is not very efficient at using memory. Both Resolve and FCP are much better at memory allocation. I don’t think you’d notice a difference between 14/32 and 16/40. But you would notice a difference between 36 and 48 GB of RAM.
So, my recommendation is get 48 GB of RAM. Yes, the Max will be faster, but no Adobe app fully uses the Pro chip. So, to save money, get the Pro, with 48 GB of RAM and as many GPUs as you can afford. Yes, you can buy more, but I don’t think you’d see an appreciable difference in speed.
Larry